Racial tensions across the years

Racism has been a huge topic for many years. From the Civil War, to the 1960’s and Martin Luther King Jr. to today, it is an ongoing issue. The definition of racism is the “poor treatment or violence towards a person because of their race or beliefs.” When one looks at the extreme violence against African Americans in the sixties to the typical racism we see today, one would surmise that racial tensions have greatly eased over the years. However, that is true only when focusing on the tensions between whites and African Americans. When new, non-traditional forms of racism are examined as well as, tensions between minorities and traditional racism, it is easy to see that the issue of race has not eased, it is the same as it was in the 1960’s; it has simply changed forms.

As stated previously, the definition of racism is, “the poor treatment or violence towards a person because of their race or beliefs.” This definition encompasses a huge number of violent acts and hate crimes that are not normally considered to be racism. Terrorism is one such act. Much of terrorism is committed with an anti-American, Christian or Jewish intent. Two of the more recent terrorist attacks include 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombings. Over 2,000 people were reported dead from the attacks on September 11th. Three people were killed and over 200 injured in the Boston Marathon bombings. The perpetrators of both attacks, Osama bin Laden and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev both cited hatred for Americans and their involvement in Middle East politics as their motivation for acts of terrorism. “Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, ‘the 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, has told interrogators that the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan motivated him and his brother...

... middle of paper ...

...ning characteristic of the sixties. People were not just “going with the flow,” but purposefully hurt and disrespected one another. It was not an accident that racism occurred, it was a deliberate act. For these reasons, both positions are false.

Racism today is of a different breed than what was going on in the sixties, nevertheless, the tensions are still there. Racism has simply morphed from the traditional form that we think of today, to terrorist activity and unfair treatment of members from other religions in the public sector. Traditional racism and hate crimes also exist in large numbers today as does tensions among the many minorities in America. Because of all these factors, racism is a much broader issue than it was in 1960. However, since it is not nearly as violent, the factors balance each other out and the tensions are much the same as the 1960’s.